Boxer Zou Shiming nearly pays price for pre-fight candy bar snack
Hall of Fame trainer warns protégé that 'to be a champion, you have to eat like a champion'
Zou Shiming will need to "eat like a champion" if he wants to become one, warned trainer Freddie Roach, after a pre-fight snack that almost cost him dearly in his second professional fight on Saturday.
Roach was annoyed after Zou ate a candy bar that sent his blood sugar soaring then crashing at the Venetian CotaiArena, leaving him running on empty.
"He was a bit tired towards the end of the fight, but we have to pay more attention to his diet and pay more attention to what he eats," said Roach, who had a serious talk with Zou after the fight.
"I saw him eat a candy bar and I was a bit upset by that. We know how George [former two-time heavyweight champion Foreman] and the amateurs like to eat candy bars, but that's for 12-year-olds. Overall I was pleased by his performance and we are heading in the right direction."
Zou said he had made a grave error in judgment before the fight by refusing to eat a bowl of rice, which would have given him the energy to last the six rounds in his unanimous decision against tough Mexican teenager Juan Ortega in Fists of Gold II.
"I didn't want it because I wanted to keep myself light before the fight and that was a lesson learnt," Zou, 32, said.
They were lessons that were learned and I know exactly what I have to do